Chapter 12: Can a Sword mofu a Kemonomimi?

Ensig:There’s an actual Author’s note this time~!

I’ve remodeled the Status Display and put it into the “Preformatted” font for this chapter. Tell me what you think about it; revert, or keep it? I’ll change all previous chapter according to the opinions on it!

Also, I hate the word Kemonomimi! Not the word itself, but the process of translating it from Japanese to English!

Sword-bro’s mean for putting that in this chapter more than once. It takes time, you know~? You mess up my machines, you know~?

Panic reaches the Slaves and Merchants who are faced with the 2-headed Bear running out of the bush.

“The Horse-drawn carriage was being attacked by Demonic Beasts of the forest.” That would probably be an appropriate way to describe this situation.

The Merchant was in a hurry to put part of the load on the slaves, but then a different order was commanded of them.

「Slaves, hold it back!」

The Merchant would take that chance to run away.

The slaves don’t even have any weapons. The only reason they’d be sent out is to be eaten and buy some time. Even the Slaves should understand that much. But they obeyed the words of the Merchant and headed towards the Bear.

Why? The thought had crossed my mind when I first saw them, but perhaps they’re bound by Magic or something? The Magic Power absorption of this land doesn’t act on the body, so it doesn’t seem to interfere with whatever Magic was used to make the contract.

A tree’s trunk was cut down, and a male Slave was blown away. With only one shot, the lower half of his body bid farewell to his upper half. Despite being a low-class Demonic Beast with only a Threat Level of F, it isn’t an opponent that can be confronted without decent equipment. These Slaves are simply too powerless in the face of the Demonic Beast, which is the personification of violence.

If this keeps up, it’ll only take a couple of minutes for the Slaves to be completely annihilated.

I’m sorry, but I can’t do anything about it since even my voice has been taken. The only one capable of getting away from this situation unscathed is the piece of trash formerly known as the Merchant.

Damn it! If only someone pulled me out!

While I aimlessly though so, a figure stood before me.

A Slave girl. But even though the girl was dirty, her hair wasn’t unkempt; it was done up and fastened in place.

And her ears… They’re cat ears. On the top of her head, she had the mark of an animal! ー It’s a Beastman[2]! It’s a Mofumimi[3]!

I forgot the terrible scene unfolding in the area and was momentarily impressed. Well, Cat Ears are a treasure of the world, right? It’s hard not to be moved.

Ahh, come on already! The inability to let out my voice is so irritating!

And the Girl… Pulls on me. ー Please, I want to immediately mofu this Nekomimi! No, wait. How could I mofu with the body of a sword? Telekinesis? No, no. Since I have a sense of touch, if I can gently do it with the side of my bladeー

The girl continued to cling to me with all her strength.

She was told to die, but is still adamant about living. She’s one that doesn’t give up. This girl. I want this girl to use me.

『……』

The girl puts more force into her grip. Come on! Pull me out!

However, it seems that I was more firmly stuck into the ground than I imagined. Judging by appearances, she’s only about 12, give or take 3 years? It’s to my understanding that she wasn’t given enough food, so she’s quite skinny. With the powerless arm of such a girl, it mustn’t be easy to pull me out.

Hang in there! Do your best! Or rather, look behind you!

Just like that, the Bear was approaching behind the girl. As for the other Slaves… It was hopeless.

The girl had received the Titles: Master of Fire, King of Cooking, King of Dismantling, and Skill Collector; those four. When Skills become LvMax, that seems to occur. Their respective Skills have their effects increased, and in the case of Skill Collector, proficiency acquisition seems to become more efficient.

Well, I’ll leave it for now. Such information isn’t exactly helpful right now.

『Fight. You should be able to.』
「Nn.」
『Defeat that guy. [5] Believe in yourself, and wield me!』

The Sword Arts Skill should be able to deal with the situation somehow. The opponent’s a lower-rank Demonic Beast, anyways. With Sword Arts Lv7, losing is impossible. There’re other Status ↑ effects in place as well.

「…… Yes. I understand.」
『Alright, good girl.』
「…… Yaa!」

The poise of the girl was absolutely beautiful. With movements befitting an expert swordsman, she moved closer to the Bear and, with a single strike, she pierced it right through the heart. It was as if I had hit tofu, as I was met with absolutely no resistance.

「Eh?」
『You were able to do it. How was it?』
「…… Yes. Thanks to you?」
『Indeed. Won’t you thank me?』
「Thank you.」

After saying so, the girl prepared to put me back into the ground, so I stopper her in a hurry.

『Wait! Don’t put me back into the ground!』
「 ? 」
『Because of the ground here, I can’t do anything. Therefore, take me with you for a while.』
「Uuーn?」
『What’s wrong?』
「You would be taken, probably.」
『By the Slave Traders?』
「Yes.」

That would be unpleasant. Even though I had found a Mofumimi girl with much effort… I want this girl to use me! Even if I’m taken away by a Merchant and sold to a connoisseur, to be sealed once again would be a much worse result!

『Why not escape?』
「Impossible. Can’t defy: collar.」
『Is it some form of Magic Tool?』
「Yes. Tried to kill multiple times, impossible.』
『You’ve tried to kill the Slave Traders?』
「Yes. I’ve tried to kill them and escape.」

I see. This girl was more bloodthirsty than I thought. But it’s not like I dislike that.

『So, it was impossible because of the collar.』
「Yes.」

While talking with the girl, I saw a man running from the other side of the forest. It’s the Slave Trader. By the way, the little man had already passed away. His corpse is sprawled out just a little ways away.

「Only one’s alive?! I’m ruined! Such a heavy loss — shit!」

There’s no sign of the man mourning over the deaths of the Slaves, or even his subordinate. Rather, he was lamenting his broken cargo. He’s so shitty that it’s refreshing.

「……」
「Did you defeat the Twin-Headed Bear?」
「Yes.」
「How did you…… What is that sword?」
「Picked up.」
「Give it to me.」
「…… Un.」
「Hey, what’s with those eyes, huh?!」
「I’m sorry, I’ll do it.」
「Tch. Damn beasts with their gloomy eyes.」
「Ah…!」

Suddenly, the man strikes the girl. Seriously? It’s a feeling that I’m used to, but… From the girl who was now crouching on the ground, the man forcefully took me away.

「Hoo… Isn’t this sword beautiful? Won’t this be able to make up my losses?」

While ignoring the groans of pain coming from the girl, the man began appraising me.

No, for some reason, it seems that the Magic Power absorption was weakened after leaving the ground. When I was stuck into the ground the absorption was instant, but now there’s a postponement of about one second until it’s absorbed.

And so, while thinking that I wanted to kill the Slave Trader, I used Telekinesis with all my power and swung vigorously. As a result, I completely pierced the face of the Slave Trader, splitting his skull hard enough for his brain fluid to burst out.

Ah. I did it?

Uuーm. Maybe because he was a piece of shit? Or, perhaps it’s because I’m a sword? Either way, the feeling of guilt doesn’t come out at all. When I killed a Goblin for the first time there was a slight aching in my conscience, though.

『Well, what should we do now?』
「 ? 」

[1] This is essentially the Author making it known that there’s Gore. ‘Nuff said. 残酷描写？

[2] Essentially, it’s “Beast/Animal Person/Man”. I took my pick and combined them as a Race. 獣人だ

[3] Yeah. This was a pain to translate. It was the same with the title — in fact, at first, I thought it was a name of some sort. It turns out that Sword-bro is referring to Kemonomimis (essentially people with animal ears/tails) for the Title, and here he’s subbing out “Kemono” with “Mofu” as a sort of slang-thing.
Mofu is essentially “rub” or “cuddle” or other such things. モフミミ様や！
What a pain~

[4] I’m not entirely sure about Skinning Expert. It’s 剥ぎ取り上手 which can be separated into 剥ぎ取り (“Stripping/Tearing Off/Skinning”) and 上手 (“Skillful/Expert/etc.). It could be “Stripping Expert” because she’s a Slave, and that sort of stuff… It happens. And, in fact, that’s the most probable translation, because there’s a legitimate Deconstruction Skill which has been mentioned before — making “Skinning” sort of like a double. But I’m not sure. I’ll keep it as-is until told otherwise via recommendations/mentions in the Story beyond this point.

[5] There’s supposed to be a “そう意識しろ。” here in the middle, but it translates to “Be conscious/aware” — which doesn’t fit well in English. I’ve transmitted the feeling of the sentence as best as I could in the next sentence, though.

Agreed, Kemonomimi is a slang from otaku culture so there’s no proper translation for it. I prefer “beastfolk” than “beastmen” though, as the second was gender specific. It’s sometimes happen in languages, like, AFAIK german tend to use feminine reference, whereas english masculine ones.

FYI, there’re those used “demi-human”, but some argue that’s too wide (coz it meant partially human, while not specificing the OTHER half). There’s “beastgirl” but that’s having same problem as “beastman”.
Hence I prefer “beastfolk”, folk as in ‘tribe’, like in ‘folklore’. Of course, it’s not without problem too, as some say that’d mean they’re more beast than human (e.g. Duel master card’s beastfolk)

——
そう意識しろ
I think while literally meant “be aware”, can still added in as “be careful” or more appropriately “but be careful”. As in, sword-bro showing concern for the loli (due to her seem to be rather apathetic about things, or some might say, ‘kuudere’)

This things happen (AFAIK) when translating things, sometimes a translator must weigh between keeping things as it was (literal), or changing things so it sounds more approriate (natural). It’s called “Translation shift”, where the words changed but the meaning remains, or the other way around. Well, I’m just saying, it’s up to you to decide things, as I can’t even read japanese.

I was troubled about the gender-thing with Beastmen when I thought of it, but settled with it because “man” could just mean “people”. “Folk” does the same, but whenever I think of it I can’t help but see the more beast-like form of Beast Anthropomorphs. Considering the fact that the MC used Kemonomimi, I’m led to believe that Beastmen are mainly Human, but with animal features, so… Yeah. The Gender reference is minor, I think.

The name of the race doesn’t really matter much in the end, so I could just use the excuse of being too lazy, though.